Illusionist
Human This is the base race by which all other races are measured. They have average stats all around and start out in Waterdeep. They have no night vision, which can be a pain, but decent constitution and strength help make up for that. Gnome Gnomes are a very good mage class. They have the second highest intelligence in the game, human constitution and decent agility. They are a little weaker than humans, but not horribly so. They also get innate infravision which allows them to see red shapes in the dark. They start out at the gnome town of Ashrumite which is just a short and relatively safe walk south of Waterdeep. In all honesty, they make the best caster race in the game. Yuan-ti Yuan-ti are a race of snake/human hybrids that exist in the far southern jungles of Faerun. They are the only Evilrace that can be an illusionist. They have gnome intelligence and human constitution and strength. They also have very good agility and infravision. In addition, they have several innates, which are documented below. However, Yuan-ti have no ears, and a tail instead of feet and legs, so they cannot wear earrings or leggings or footwear. They can however wear a tailpiece of some sort to help compensate. Yuan-ti Innates * Scaleskin - This will give an increase to Armor Class for a limited time when used, depending on level. At level 50, it gives -35 ac per use. * Vipermind - This gives a bonus to the character's hitroll and damroll, depending on level. At level 50 it gives 6 hitroll and 5 damroll. * Befriend Reptile - This allows the Yuan-ti to charm a reptile mob up to half of the character's level. This can be very useful in getting cheap pets, however there are very few reptile classed mobs of a decent charmable level in the game. * Tailsweep - This can be used when not already engaged in battle to bash a specified mob. The chance to bash increases with level. * Snakebite - This can be used to bite a mob, inflicting minor damage. Illusionists will not find snakebiting to be useful for anything but a novelty. Regardless of which race you roll, you will want to have at least heroic intelligence, good constitution, fair agility and fair strength. 1st Circle * Shadow Bolt - Like Magic Missile, a very good low level damage spell. * Detect Invisible - Allows one to see invisible objects, mobs and players. * Detect Magic - Used to see whether spells on you are about to fade, as well as to see certain enchantments that are on you. * Mage Flame - Light-source spell that is cast on a player. 2nd Circle * Blackthorns - Like Chill touch, it does decent low level damage. * Invisibility - Used to turn people and things invisibile. Helpful to walk around undetected, but beware of mobs that can detect invisibility. * Minor Creation - Makes helpful items such as rations, torches, and rafts. * Faerie Fire - Makes a mob easier to hit in melee, and makes rogue mobs unable to hide. * Dispel Invisibility - Removes the invisibility from any mob or object. 3rd Circle * Change Self - This is a very powerful spell. It allows you to disguise yourself as someone completely different. This means that mobs that were previously aggro to you will no longer recognize you. This also allows you to disguise as different races in order to walk into Hometowns of other races. * Locate Object - Helpful spell to locate certain objects. Can also be used to see the movement of ships in the realm. * Phantom Armor - Gives a -20 ac bonus to whoever it is cast upon. * Mass Invisibility - This will cast invsibility on everything in the room including mobs, players and items on the ground. 4th Circle * Spook - This is a powerful spell, especially when zoning. It causes minor damage to mobs, but has a very high chance of stunning them. Some Mobs are not stunnable however, like demons, dragons, undead and effreeti. Can be used to keep mobs from switching or casting. * Teleport - Helpful spell to cast when you need to get out of a tight spot quickly. Can be used to cross certain rivers in the realms. * Levitate - Allows you to hover and move up and down in no-ground areas. * Farsee - Helpful spell to see through doors. * Dispel Magic - Removes all spell effects currently on a player or a mob. Also used to rescue a player under the charms of a succubus. Get consent before casting this on another player. * Beautify - Used to increase the Charisma of the target. This is stackable so anyone can reach 100 charisma for a limited time by using this spell. * Phantom Steed - This summons a mount that you can use to help travel the world quickly without needing to rest. * Scarlet Outline - An improved version of Faerie Fire, Scarlet Outline makes mobs even easier to hit. Note that it will not stack with Faerie Fire. 5th Circle * True Sight - This spell combines infravision, detect invis, detect magic, detect good, and detect evil into one spell. * Doppleganger - Creates a doppleganger of the person it is cast on. This doppleganger will copy the melee attacks of the player, doing minor damage with its attacks. * Dimension Door - Transports you to a player of the same racial alignment (i.e evils cannot dim to a goodie) in the same zone. * Shadow Magic - A decent mid level single target damage spell. * Shadow Burst - Does minor area damage to all mobs in the room. 6th Circle * Clairvoyance - Used to look in on other players, or use it to check whether a relocatable target is safe. * Nondetection - Mobs that are normally aggressive to you due to your alignment will ignore you with this spell up. Note that if they are normally aggressive to your race, that they will still attack you. (Example: Waterdeep gate guards are still aggressive to drow elves.) * Summon Shade - Summons a perma-invisible pet with 20-80 hp to follow you. Is very useful for solo exping, or in zones to help scout ahead. * Displacement - One of the major spells of an illusionist. Displacement is a defensive spell that causes mobs to miss the person it is cast on a set number of times based on the skill level of the caster. Many people claim it to be a better spell than stone skin, and I agree. * Tranquility - When cast it has a chance of causing mobs in the room to stop attacking the person tanking them. 7th Circle * Phantasmal Blades - Does decent area damage to all mobs in the room. * Shadechill - Does decent single target damage. Very useful for midlevel exping. * Shadow Flux - This spell significantly lowers the Magic Resistance of mobs. Very useful when fighting high MR mobs like demons and dragons. * Sequester - This will stop mobs from being able to summon or dim to whoever it's cast on. Note that it also stops other Players from summoning or dimming to the person, which can be dangerous in some situations. * Camouflage - Can be cast out of combat to hide the caster. Quite useful for when things go bad. * Corpse Glamour - Causes the corpse it's cast upon to become weightless and therefore easier to drag as well as draggable while flying/levitating. 8th Circle * Mislead - Probably the most powerful spell that illusionists have. This causes the caster to become untrackable by normal tracking mobs. Can be used to scout dangerous areas in relative safety. Note that recent changes have made it so that if you are within 1 room of a tracking mob you have aggro'd, it will track into your room and attack. * Dimensional Fold - This will open a rift in space that allows players to move from one spot to another within the same zone. * Mirror Image - A good defensive self-only spell. When cast it creates 8 mirror images of the caster. Mobs attacking the caster have a chance of hitting the images and dissipating them rather than hitting the caster, depending on how many images are left. (IE, when there are 8 images left, mobs have a 1 in 9 chance to hit the player, when there is only 1 left, they have a 1 in 2 chance.) * Rainbow Pattern - When cast successfully on a mob, it will cause the mob's chance to score a critical hit to drop severely. (Or so most believe.) * Phantom Heal - This will act like a normal heal on a player when it is cast. However, it only lasts for a limited amount of time, and if the player's hitpoints are below the number of hitpoints the spell originally gave, the player will die when it wears off. Can only be cast when the player is missing at least 50% of their hitpoints. Very useful when a player is morted and the healers are busy. * Feign Death - This spell will cause a mob that is attacking a player to think that the player is already dead and stop attacking. Can only be cast on a player under attack that is missing over half their maximum hitpoints. (I have personally never seen this spell work.) * Sun Shadow - This causes the sun to be blocked out, allowing races with Ultravision to see as normal in bright rooms. This can't be cast while in combat. 9th Circle * Shadow Walk - Transports you to a player of the same racial alignment anywhere in the realms or in the planes, except no-teleport rooms. Fails often, which randomly teleports you in zone, so be sure to only cast it in a safe area. * Gate - Used to open portals to other planes. Can access Fire, Air, Astral, Ethereal and Smoke Plane. * Phantasmal Killer - Does very good single target damage. Use at higher levels in zones and for exping. * Massmorph - When cast, the entire group the caster is in will become hidden to mobs. However if anyone in the group moves or attacks, the illusion is shattered. 10th Circle * Nightmare - Does very good single target damage. In addition it has a chance to stun every mob in the room. Note that there is a 1-3 round lag upon casting nightmare which can be dangerous in many situations. Also, only the mob that this spell is cast upon is aggro'd, not any other mobs which may be stunned by it unless they were already aggro the caster. * Phantasmal Tendrils - One of the coolest spells in the game. When cast, for the next 3 rounds a phantasmal tendril will randomly squeeze a mob in the room, doing extreme damage. It can also slow and rainbow pattern the mob it hits. It also has a chance to continue to drain hp off of the mob it hit for some time after. This spell can be dragged so you can cast it 1 room and then move into another in order for it to hit mobs in that room. At low levels, the best way to exp is to find a tank and just cast low level damage spells like shadow bolt and blackthorns. If you play a goodraced caster, the best places for exp below level 20 will be that little area east of WD just east of Turning Point. Also good are Sedawi village, Goblin caves, and Split shield. Once you hit level 15 or so, it's a good idea to find a tank and go to BGR. As an evil, exp in Dobluth Kyor and Mir Forest is the best till level 20-25. Around that level, going to Minotaur outpost just east of Tethyr forest with a small group is a good idea. The hardest part of exping an illusionist is that from about level 16 to 28ish, you're really not useful in a group experience setting, as you don't do much damage and don't have much in the way of defensive abilities. But if you perservere, around level 28, you will have 3 displaces and they will last long enough to be of use in any exp group. Around level 30 you should start trying to get into Spirit Raven Exp groups. Also good is Druid's Sanctuary, Tower of High sorcery in a small group, and Duergar Settlement if you're an evil. Once you reach level 41 or so, it's a good time to start trying to get into Smoke Exp groups. An ideal smoke exp group is a cleric or shaman, an illusionist and an invoker. You will rip through smoke plane and gain a lot of experience along the way. Just remember that fluxing the mephits on smoke should be one of your first duties. You can also solo a lot of exp by using your shade to tank. In a zone group, an illusionist is responible for several things. First, displace will last for 15-20 minutes at high levels. So it's a good idea to keep everyone in the group displaced at all times. I can't tell you the number of times displace on a cleric has saved them from getting destroyed when a squad of mobs walked in. Displace on the tanks should of course always be a priority, and when it falls in battle, it's a good idea to try to keep it up on a regular basis. When fighting caster mobs, the illusionist will very often have to look after stunning the mob to keep it from completing its spells. High level illusionists can do this with both nightmare and spook, just don't forget that nightmare can have a very high lag on it. Low level illusionists with just spook can also be extremely useful in keeping players from eating spells. Illusionists are odd in that way. They can be near useless in exp groups at any level, but even from level 21, and certainly by level 31, they are very good to have in a zone group. Many illusionists are also used to help scout in zones as well. By using the mislead/change self/sequester combo, they can scout many zones at will to help group leaders decide what would be the best course of action. Illusionists also make great taxis before, during, and after a zone, with their gate/dimensional fold combo. Dimensional fold is also useful in teleportable zones by helping get group members all together in the zone, or folding past threats and obstacles. Always keep at least 3 spooks memmed. You never know when stunning that 1 caster will save your life. Shades are an indispensible pet. A displaced shade can usually last several rounds against even the most hard hitting solo mob. They are also good for luring mobs, and running by mobs while scouting. Having a shade in the room with you will often cause any aggro walk-in mobs to target the shade first, instead of you, giving you a chance to get out safely. Always, always, ALWAYS watch for when your mislead is going to fall. If you have accidentally aggro'd several mobs and your mislead falls while you're at an unprepared group, that group is NOT going to be happy with you. A good idea is to keep yourself change self'd as much as possible when you're aggro to mobs. That way when your mislead falls, you will still have time to put up a fresh mislead. Be warned that mobs will still dim to you or try to summon you even if you are change self'd, so sequester is often neccessary. Keep yourself displaced and mirror imaged at all times. It will save your life at some point. Illusionists are a very powerful CR (Corpse Retrieval) classs. Corpse glamor is a very useful tool toward that end, so be sure to use it. As with all caster classes, make sure to have at least 3 full backup sets of spellbooks on storage.